


A New Leaf

by Khalid



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Characters Are in Fandom, F/M, Ginny is dead, Lucius is in Azkaban
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 12:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5626528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khalid/pseuds/Khalid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just before graduation, Harry stumbles on a very unexpected relationship...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Leaf

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter or any of the named characters, They all belong to J.K.  
> ...I just appreciate my own spin on canon in my head.

Harry lay in his bed on Christmas Eve staring at the photo of Sirius he had pinned to the top of his canopy on his bed. He couldn’t believe it was two years since his godfather had disappeared. Harry would graduate this year along with his friends; Ron, Hermione, Neville and Seamus and a few he wished had failed including his nemesis and second cousin Draco Malfoy. The two had begun badly before Harry’s first year, and Harry often wondered just how life at Hogwarts’ School for Witchcraft and Wizardry would have been if he had simply shaken Draco’s hand when they first met.  
Admittedly, though, Draco reminded Harry less as each year passed of his bully cousin Dudley (Who even now was barely able to fit his 250 lbs into his father’s reclining chair, and had his own seat at the dining room table) and more of his vengeful Potions professor, Severus Snape. Harry had learned early in his school years that his father, James Potter, had saved Snape’s life and thought that Snape was a twisted person who hated to be in debt to a person even though James had died later. During his fifth year, though, Harry had to take a special class with Snape, and during the last of these sessions, he had seen a piece of Snape’s memory that showed James to be almost as bad a bully as Dudley, who often crowed about beating up people a third his immense weight. Harry was never able to express his sorrow or loathing of his father, however, as professor Snape made it nearly impossible to speak to him in private.  
Harry also discovered that Draco had very close and personal relationship with his father and Snape, which Harry unwittingly destroyed when he named the supporters of the dark wizard, Tom Riddle, who had renamed himself Lord Voldermort. Draco had, in the following two years, teetered on the brink of madness between vindictive rage and suicidal depression. Most of his days in class were spent in a near catatonic stupor, broken only by outbursts of rage or fits of tears, during either of which he would run from the class room to be found in a corner of the boys’ lavatory or in the dungeon office of professor Snape.  
Just after the school year started, and Harry was expecting to see the same activity as he had last year, Harry had noticed a profound change in Draco. He could often be seen lingering after any classes he had with the Griffindors, watching Harry, Ron and Hermione during the classes and writing long notes which he would then crumple up and throw in the wastebasket. Once, Hermione levitated a note just before it went into the can, and as she read it her face went a dark red and she refused to allow the guys to read it. Harry saw less and less of her during lunches and breaks as the year went on. He once approached Ron, Hermione’s current boyfriend and longtime friend of both, and the only answer he got was a disgusted look and the enigmatic comment, “Turned, she thinks. Ha! A leaf is he? Harrumph!”  
The noise of the morning broke into Harry’s reverie. He didn’t feel well rested. He wondered how long he had laid thinking about Sirius, Draco, and Hermione. Soon, however, dark thoughts were driven from his mind by the happy sounds of Ron opening Harry’s gifts to him and other things he got. Harry discovered he was a lot less shy giving gifts to Ron, whose family had little money themselves, and had, over the last few years, arranged for Ron to have hew dress robes, got him a new pet (a salamander which aside from being useful and magical, also happened to be very devoted to Ron as well) a new broom for their Quidditch games, and a bunch of assorted items Harry thought Ron aught to have. Harry opened his own gift happily, however somberly; remembering the empty space on the floor it seemed created by Sirius’ disappearance. He smiled at the sweater from Ron’s mother. She had sent him one every year. Then he pulled out a package labeled ‘Hermione’ in neat handwriting. It didn’t look like it was from her as much as to her, so Harry, with a sideways glance at Ron, who was absorbed in a miniature globe, stowed the package under his robe, figuring to ask her about it later.  
Harry heard bells outside and called to Ron, “Hey, we’re gonna be late!” They hurriedly dressed to go on the sleighs to Hogsmeade village. Harry noticed Hermione’s figure going up the staircase to the girls’ dorms and called out to her. “Herm, come on, we’ll miss the sleighs!” “You go ahead, I’m going to walk.” came the reply. Ron and Harry glanced at each other, shrugged, and went down to the sleighs. From her window, Hermione watched them leave and looked out at the scuffed tracks in the snow outside her window.  
This morning, she had gotten a personal Christmas card from a familiar looking owl. She knew whose it was immediately on opening it, as a small snake was writing on her card over and over, “Look out the window. Merry Christmas, Hermione.” There in the snow, seemingly written by a great green and red fountain quill, was the legend, “I love you.” Hermione knew that Ron hadn’t written it, so she went out and banished the snow enchantment. She had made it back to the dorms just in time, and was relieved the guys hadn’t noticed her snow boots on under her robes. Now she had an excuse to think about how she felt.  
Harry was halfway down to the sleighs when he remembered the odd gift. Thinking Hermione would prefer to open it alone, he made an excuse to Ron that he had forgotten his wand upstairs and would meet him later at Zonko’s joke shop in the village. He ran back inside and rushed up stairs to meet Hermione before she left. When he reached the common room, Draco Malfoy was standing outside the portrait door which could only be opened by a password. Harry was uncomfortable with the knowledge of their relation since he had found out his godfather and grandfather were related to the Malfoys. Harry still had a lot of guilt that he had taken Draco’s father from him two years earlier, so he tried to avoid confrontation. But this meeting was surreal, and he asked, “Draco, what are you doing here?” “Oh!” he replied, startled, “I was… just waiting for someone…” He glanced at the fat lady in the portrait and said, “Well, I guess you’ll want to go in…”  
At this moment, the portrait swung open and Hermione emerged from the room behind the hidden door. She saw Draco and put on a smile, “Hi, I didn’t know weather or not to come out…” Then she saw Harry and, startled, stammered, “Oh! Harry… um, I was just…” She looked around, “What are you doing here? I thought you were going to the village?” She asked guiltily. Harry replied, glancing pointedly at Draco, “I just remembered, I found something in my room that was supposed to go to you.” At this, Draco blushed furiously and muttered, “It was from me. I gave it to the house elf, Dobby, but he must have gotten the rooms mixed up.” Harry thought Dobby knew a lot more than he was given credit for, and figured the sly house elf had something up his sleeve. He remembered how Dobby had tried to prevent him from coming back to school in his fourth year and the terrible way the Malfoys had treated Dobby before Harry had tricked Draco’s father into letting him go. Harry thought that Dobby probably had a reason to feel ill toward Draco and had tried to get him into trouble with Ron. Luckily, Harry had found the package and hid it instead of showing it to Ron.  
Harry grinned and said, “Hermione, you’ll want to open that inside. Why don’t we just silence Malfoy’s ears and invite him in?” Draco nodded and looked hopefully at Hermione who, after some thought, produced her wand and pointed it at Draco. She spoke, “Mufflatio” at his ears, then Harry told the fat lady in the portrait the password and they went in. Draco looked around the room for a moment as they sat in the chairs by the fireplace, and Harry remembered that he had seen the Slytherin common room when he and Ron had disguised themselves as Draco’s old pals Crabbe and Goyle in their second year. Harry had barely resisted picking on Draco when he heard a gasp from Hermione. He looked over to see if she was okay (he had forgotten about the gift in his reminiscence of the old days) and saw Hermione stuffing something silver back into the wrapper.  
He barely had time to say, “Herm…” when she stood up, clutching the box. “I’ll just put this up!” she squeaked, and ran to the girls’ dorm with Harry trailing her. “What was it?” he asked her back as she shut the door. He heard a snicker from behind him and wheeled on Draco. “Well, its personal, isn’t it?” Draco asked with a self satisfied smirk on his face. Harry stared agape with no response to such a cocky, yet true statement, until Hermione returned a few seconds later. “Come on, you two.” She said breathily, “We’ll miss all the fun.” With this, she brushed between them. Harry noticed she was still blushing furiously, and trailed after as Draco followed her out. Draco opened the door for her, and they struck up an amiable conversation as they left the grounds. The only indication Harry got that they even remembered he was there was a glance back from time to time over their shoulder. They did not bother to lower their voices, but the conversation was of such meaningless matter that Harry soon tuned them out and walked in his own thoughts until they reached the village of Hogsmeade.  
As they approached the Shrieking Shack, a place that had once housed a Werewolf who taught at Hogwarts the year before and had gained a reputation as haunted by the locals, Harry saw a figure in the window and stopped. “Draco, look!” He said in amazement. The figure peering out at them from the distance was none other than Lucious Malfoy, currently in prison for crimes against the wizarding world. But Draco hurriedly brushed Harry’s questions aside. “I put a spell on that window last year so that I could see my father when I came by here. It only appears when I pass by.” Hermione and Harry shared a pitying glance, his own tinged with guilt and finally he burst out, “Draco, I’m really sorry… I know how you feel!”  
Draco turned to Harry, smiled ruefully and asked, “War your father a convicted criminal then? I know you and Sirius were close, but he was innocent… cousin.” Harry was shocked to hear a family reference coming from Draco. Harry had told him to spite him, when Draco was still insufferable, and it had seemed to deflate Draco’s ego far more than Harry had suspected it would. Draco made a motion to go up to the shack, and Harry decided now would be a good time to make his excuses and go meet Ron. Hermione, blushing furiously once again, said, “Tell him… I got delayed…” and rushed through the fence to go to Draco. Harry shook his head, bewildered. Draco and Hermione? He would never have believed it until now, only… He glanced back at the two of them over his shoulder. They were holding hands and talking together in low voices. How on earth would he explain this to Ron? If he ever found out, Harry believed he may very well have a heart attack.  
Harry met Ron at Zonko’s, but was so distracted by the earlier walk that he did not enjoy the shop full of jokes and sweets like he usually did. “What’s up with you, Harry?” Ron asked through a mouthful of chocolate. (Harry was always surprised the whole school didn’t look like Dudley Dursley; all they ever seemed to eat was sweets. It appeared that magic burned up a lot of calories!) “Harry,” Ron continued as he swallowed, “Where’s Herm, anyway?” Harry pondered the answer for a minute, and then decided he owed it to his friend to tell the truth. Regardless of Hermione’s intent, he was being hoodwinked by his girlfriend. “Come here, Ron.” He motioned to a secluded table in the near deserted shop of coffee couples came to during Valentine’s Day.  
“Look, Ron, you need to know something.” Harry trailed off as he saw the look of fear on Ron’s face; this wasn’t going to be easy. “Ron, I don’t know how to tell you this, I’m sure she was going to tell you eventually…” This was getting harder, so Harry finally just blurted, “She’s going out with Malfoy!” Then he hurriedly added, “I mean, she seems… well, they were walking…” Harry trailed off as a grin spread across Ron’s face. He sat there confused as Ron said, “Harry, is it possible that you are the last person to know?” Harry just sat there stunned as Ron explained the whole year to him. He must have been so wrapped up in his own life he just hadn’t even noticed.  
Hermione and Ron had broken up over the summer and when the year started, Draco had started writing to her. At first, she had talked to Ron about it. Of course, he wasn’t happy about it. He didn’t figure a person could change that much in one summer, but he couldn’t stop her. She had explained that his father going to prison had changed a lot in Draco, and gradually Ron had agreed. Ron had only smiled at the thought that Harry was the last to know, but now that it was out, he couldn’t stop wondering how someone that obviously evil could change so much that he would go out with the person he used to hate the most.  
Harry agreed with Ron’s feelings. He had thought the same way at the beginning of the year when Draco had first tried to make amends. It brought him back to his first thoughts this morning, as he had stared at the picture of Sirius above his bed. Harry began explaining all the things Draco had said to him through the year, and by the time he and Ron had decided to go back to Hogwart’s, he thought either Ron agreed with him or figured Draco had both he and Hermione fooled. “Look, Harry” Ron said when it seemed that Harry was finally done talking, “I don’t disagree that he’s different. All I’m saying is, if he wants to win me over, he has to go all the way. I mean, look; he said nasty things to you and Hermione, sure, but what about me? I mean, I’m not trying to be selfish, but my sister and my dad were seriously hurt by crap his dad pulled. And he didn’t help much either, always knocking us Weasleys because we’re… poor.” This last, he said in a hushed tone, and then blushed. It was a sensitive subject for him.  
Harry could never really figure it out. He could understand being embarrassed about money; he himself had so much that he was embarrassed to buy new clothes. But whenever they were out, Ron would get all flustered if Harry tried to get him anything, yet he would voice his bitterness at being poor any chance he got. Harry had finally given up and gotten Ron stuff he wished Ron had for Christmas or his birthday, and kept an invisible, joke tally of all the money he had ‘loaned’. Ron didn’t seem shy to ask to borrow money, though Harry couldn’t see getting it back ever. As it stood, Ron owed him about 500 Galleons, but Harry didn’t care.  
Harry wondered momentarily what Draco could possibly do to make up two generations of hate between the Malfoys and the Weasleys, and then they met Draco and Hermione on the path from the Shrieking shack. They were holding hands until Draco spotted Ron, then he pulled away guiltily, as if her hand burned him. “Uh, hi guys…” He stammered and hung back nervously until Hermione tugged his arm exasperatedly. “Honestly, you two. You know already! Now, Draco, I think you have something to say to Ron.” She stared at him until he looked up and with a deep breath he pulled himself up straight and told Ron and Harry, “Hermione and I are getting married.” She kept looking at him, and finally made a “go ahead” gesture and Draco said, “And… Hermione and I agreed that when we have kids… Well, Ron, if it’s okay with you, we’d like to name them Ronald, and um… Ginny.” This last, he said in a hushed, almost reverent tone, and Ron simply stood there stunned until Harry cleared his throat and nudged him.  
“Um… well, I guess if you have a son you could call him… Ron.” He glanced bewildered at Hermione a moment, then he seemed to get some nerve and stared directly at Draco. “If you want to name your daughter after my sister, you’ll have to ask her yourself!” With that, Ron took off down the road toward school, leaving Harry there with the new couple. “Wow, Hermione. I mean, I’m really happy for you,” Harry began, “But that was pretty harsh.” Hermione looked at Draco, who was staring up at the image of his father in the window of the shrieking shack. “Well, we do owe it to the Weasleys to go see them.” Draco turned around and they started up the path toward the school. “You know, Hermione, it will be kind of hard to ask Ginny for her blessing, maybe we should try to think of another girl name.” Thinking of Sirius, Harry silently agreed. He hadn’t found a spell yet that allowed a person to speak with the departed, and it was just too soon to expect the Weasleys to be able to let go of their daughter like that.


End file.
